Tagged: Tony Pena

Adam Dunn is really starting to bug me. I’m still tolerating him because he’s adjusting to both being a full-time designated hitter and American League pitching… but really, Adam? He struck out with runners on first and third in a situation that could’ve given us a shot at winning this ballgame. Not only did he strike out but he struck out pinch hitting. Ozzie put him in there for one reason: to drive in a run. Last time I checked, unless the ball is dropped, you can’t drive in a run on a strikeout.

He’s up to sixty strikeouts in one hundred fifty-one at-bats. He’s batting .192. Not quite $56 million numbers thus far into his Sox career.

We got the good Pitcher of Mystery today but unfortunately our offense couldn’t muster up enough… well, offense to get him a win. Paul Konerko drove in the lone run for the Sox in the top of the seventh inning, scoring Alexei Ramirez on a RBI single. Floyd is remaining consistently inconsistent. Look at his numbers over his past six starts going back to his start against the Yankees

4/26 @ NYY | 8 IP | 4 H | 2 R | 2 ER | 1 BB | 10 SO | 3-1 win

5/1 vs. BAL | 6 IP | 7 H | 6 R | 6 ER | 2 BB | 5 SO | 6-4 loss

5/7 @ SEA | 8 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 0 ER | 2 BB | 6 SO | 6-0 win

5/14 @ OAK | 4.1 IP | 9 H | 5 R | 5 ER | 2 BB | 4 SO | 6-2 loss

5/19 vs. CLE | 7 IP | 5 H | 1 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 3 SO | 8-2 win

5/25 @ TEX | 7 IP | 3 H | 2 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 1 SO | 2-1 loss

Granted in today’s start it had more to do with the lack of offense than the lack of good pitching from Gavin. That’s a winning pitching line any day. Except today. But, as I pointed out, one start he’s holding the opposition down and the next start he’s getting beaten up. It just doesn’t make sense. Today’s start confuses me, though… he was scheduled for a loss and got it… but he had winning numbers. Will he have losing numbers and earn a win in his next start to get back on track?

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Good job by our two guys out of the bullpen today. Both Chris Sale and Tony Pena earn two points for their one inning of work. (Sale pitched one third of the eighth inning and Pena finished the other two thirds.)

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Our second big road trip of the month continues tomorrow as the Sox head up to Canada for a four-game series against the Blue Jays. Phil Humber (3-3, 3.10), our consistently consistent pitcher, will take on Brandon Morrow (2-2, 5.06), a pretty good pitcher.

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Someone inject some life into Adam Dunn’s bat, please.

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Go Sox!! [Had to put those hyphens in there to separate the paragraphs because Floyd’s stats were originally in bullet point and that really does mess up the spacing. I apologize for the ugliness but it looked even worse without those there]

Man, I have to be honest, I fell asleep during this game. The rain/tornado delay was a couple minutes shy of three hours long and the game didn’t end until about 1:30 am. I was awake for most of the delay show but I finally gave up and just let myself fall asleep.

That being said, how about this Carlos Quentin kid!? First time this season (I think) in the third slot in the batting order and the guy hits three home runs. Adam Dunn even threw in a home run to offset his home runs-to-strikeouts ratio. And Dunn even bumped his batting average up near .200. Wayta go, bud.

The bullpen was pretty shaky and since my leaderboard is based on individual performance and not performance as a collective bullpen, not everyone gets points. Will Ohman pitched a good inning after the delay so he’ll get two points; Tony Pena allowed two runs so I’m afraid he won’t get any; Chris Sale allowed one run so no points for him; Jesse Crain was his usual self so he gets two points; Matt Thornton = same situation as Sale; finally, Santos struck out two batters en route to a save – two points for Sergio. Santos and Crain are fighting it out for the top spot in the standings.

Tomorrow’s game (well, actually, today’s game as I’m blogging this on Wednesday) will be a 1:05 start (which I didn’t know until I got in the car and found out they were in the eighth inning already… ugh…). It’ll be Gavin Floyd (5-3, 3.88) against C.J. Wilson (4-3, 3.42).

I don’t think anyone could’ve asked for a better outing from Gavin Floyd. The man was sharp as a knife on the mound tonight and his command and control were the best I’ve ever seen from him in a long time. I don’t often get a chance to watch a ballgame but tonight’s game was MLB.tv’s free game of the day so I was very excited. I noticed at the beginning of the game that Floyd’s delivery has changed a little since I last got to watch him pitch on TV and at first I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Apparently it’s a good thing as he dealt eight innings of three-hit shutout baseball. What a gem.

The offense had a night to be proud of as well! Fourteen hits off of Mariners starter Doug Fister were good for five runs. The seven, eight, and nine hitters were ten-for-ten in their first ten at-bats with four runs scored and two runs batted in. Rios, batting seventh tonight, went four-for-four and was quite smiley about it. Adam Dunn also had a pretty good night as he was two-for-four with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. My boy Brent Morel was three-for-four with an RBI in a great night for the Sox offense.

Mark Teahen pinch hit for Paul Konerko in the ninth inning because of an injury to Konerko’s wrist. Ichiro scorched a grounder to Paulie and the ball hopped up and “bit” Konerko in the wrist. Paulie was having a hard time in his final at bat as Ozzie and trainer Herm Schneider had to go out and check on him. Hopefully Konerko’s injury isn’t too bad and he’ll be back in the lineup tomorrow afternoon.

Tony Pena pitched an excellent ninth inning out of the bullpen, allowing just one walk and striking out Jack Cust to end the game.

Bullpen Points Leaderboard

1. Sergio Santos – 19 points

1. Jesse Crain – 19 points

3. Will Ohman – 12 points

4. Chris Sale – 11 points

5. Tony Pena– 8 points

5. Matt Thornton – 8 points

7. Jeff Gray –7 points

Whoever signed Milton Bradley to a professional baseball contract needs to have his scouting certification reevaluated. The man is absolutely terrible and I was literally laughing at his outfielding skills. Michael Saunders, however, is one heck of a center fielder. He’s filling in for Franklin Gutierrez who is currently on the disabled list but the way Saunders is playing I’d have a real hard time putting Gutierrez back in the lineup. Saunders has very good range and takes good routes to liners, and he can even rob home runs! It pays to be tall. The Mariners have a good outfielder on their hands and I hope they use him wisely.

Congratulations to Justin Verlander on the
second no-hitter of his career. Bunny struck out four batters en route to the second no-hitter of the week and the second in the division. And congratulations to Andre Ethier on an awesome 30-game hit streak that came to an end tonight. I had a good feeling about his chances to make it to at least 40 games but the Mets had other plans and held the left-handed left fielder hitless in four at-bats.

Tomorrow’s game, as I mentioned earlier, is an afternoon ballgame. The Mariners’ Erik Bedard (1-4, 5.23) will take on Mark Buehrle (2-3, 4.37). Let’s build on this one-game winning streak!